Do you know that in Christ you are royal?

Most Christians do not know they are kings. They think that are going to be kings – one day, maybe, after Jesus returns – but they do not know that Jesus has empowered them to rule and reign here and now.

“One day I will be crowned but for now I am merely a humble servant in the courts of the Lord.”

Why are you standing out in the courts when you could be seated in the throne room? This sort of servant talk appeals to our religious pride but it is an abdication of our true calling. We are meant to be priest-kings who rule in the Name of the Great King.

“But I don’t know what a priest-king looks like. I have never heard of one before.”

To the scriptures, Batman!

Did you know the first priest mentioned in the Bible was also a king? It was Melchizedek, “king of Salem and priest of God Most High” (Heb. 7:1).

And what kind of king is Jesus? He is a priest-king, in the order of Melchizedek (Heb. 5:6). In other words, Jesus wears two hats. He is a priest who serves and a king who rules.

You wear two hats

A servant’s heart is appropriate for a priest, but a priest who is not also a king will be powerless to deal with giant-sized problems. A crownless priest will present an emasculated image of Christ. His gospel will be weak and his kingdom will be nothing but talk.

Jesus is the servant-hearted king who served by subduing the enemy. His disciples did the same and as we allow him to express his kingly life through us so will we.

Perhaps you are a bit awed by all this talk of slaying giants and healing the sick. Perhaps you are worried that you may fail the king test and leave the sword in the stone. Don’t panic. If you run instead of rule God won’t reject you. Even David ran.

In truth, there will be times when ruling seems a most unreasonable thing to do. It’s not an easy thing to believe for healing when three doctors and two specialists have given you a negative report. And the sight of wheelchairs at the altar call may tempt even experienced ministers to turn away and look for softer targets.

We celebrate David’s heroics but no one would have thought ill of him if he had fled from the lion, the bear, and the giant. Indeed, he would have been applauded for doing the smart thing.

“Why fight a lion over a few dumb sheep? David, you could have died!”

Run from your lion or bear and no one will think the less of you. You will appear to be a sensible, lion-avoiding person, and God will still love you.

But here’s the thing. Why would you want to?

If your child is sick or your spouse is being attacked by depression, why would you choose to do nothing?

Why walk when you can fly?

The point is not that you have to be a king but that you get to be a king. The same Spirit that enabled David to slay lions and giants empowers you to rule and reign. You have options the unbeliever lacks. You have the Holy Spirit. Given this phenomenal advantage, why would you choose to act like a mere man or woman?

It makes as much sense as Superman riding the bus.

Once upon a time there were two men whose families were attacked by bandits. One man tore his clothes, sat down in the ash heap, and threw himself a pity party. The other man encouraged himself in the Lord, then hunted down and subdued his enemies. Guess which of these two men went on to become Israel’s greatest king?

Job was a superstitious, sacrifice-bringing navel gazer, but David was a priest-king and a man after God’s own heart.

In Christ, you are too.

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You are a king which means you need to talk like one. If you would reign in life, you will need to exercise authority from time to time. You will need to “king down” upon your problems. How do you do that? Grace comes through faith and faith must be acted upon if it is to be of any benefit. The easiest way to express faith is to speak it. Words are powerful. Words can be used to build up or tear down, guide or misdirect, clarify or confuse. The right word at the right time can change the world. Kings exercise dominion by speaking. To paraphrase Ecclesiastes 8:4, “the word of the king has power.” When God’s kings speak God’s words, God backs it up with power. This is not to glorify the word spoken in faith but to draw attention to the Living Word who lives within you. When you reveal Jesus, your words are supernaturally empowered to bring salvation to the lost and freedom to the captives. You can drive out demons and heal the sick just as he did. In fact, Jesus promised that those who believe in him would do exactly these sorts of things [...]

In recent articles I have explained how every believer is called to be a king – to exercise kingly authority and live from the abundant provision of God’s supply.

Paul said those who receive grace and righteousness will reign in life (Rom. 5:17). So the test of a king—your sword in the stone, if you like—is whether you have taken hold of the Lord’s righteousness. If you don’t receive it you won’t reign. You will toil like Adam and curse what God has blessed. Even though you are free in Christ, you won’t live free. You will bear the heavy yoke of manmade religion and become easy prey for the spirit of intimidation. You will come under the demonic control of others. Something like this happened in Peter’s life.

Dinner for schmucks

Peter had a revelation that Christ died for all people and not just the Jews. This revelation changed him. As he allowed the heart of Christ to be revealed in his own life, Peter began to accept Gentiles even to the point of eating with them.

However, when certain men from James came to Antioch, Peter drew back from the Gentiles in fear. He separated himself because he was unsure of his righteousness. “Am I right? Maybe I’m not. Those Judaizers look the business. They’ve got titles. They’ve got theology and a list of scriptures explaining why I am wrong. I had better listen to them.” Instead of standing up for the Gentiles like a king, Peter stood with the critics like a schmuck and Paul rebuked him for it (see Gal. 2:11–13).

The strange thing about Peter’s behavior is that he should have known better. God accepts people from every nation and Peter knew this. God had given him a dramatic rooftop vision featuring animals and sheets that somehow made everything clear (see Acts 10:9–28).

But when push came to shove, Peter abdicated his kingly role and took himself out of the game. He feared those of the circumcision group because they were more confident of their self-righteousness than he was of his righteousness in Christ Jesus.

The source of our confidence

Kings are confident and that confidence comes from knowing you are righteous with the righteousness that comes from God. When you know that God has made you righteous and that he loves you, accepts you, and is well pleased with you, it changes everything. You no longer hang back on the fringes of the kingdom like a fraud and you no longer tolerate the grace-killing lies of religion. You begin to reign. You begin to walk and talk like a child of the Most High. You begin to live out your destiny.

You don’t need to go to King School to become a king. You just need to see yourself as your Father sees you. You need to receive in your heart what he has said, act on it, and leave the results to him.

The gospel declares that in him you are righteous (Php 3:9). As you walk in this revelation, your confidence will grow and you will start to exercise your kingly influence. You will pray less like a beggar and more like a commander. If someone in your family gets sick, something inside of you will respond, “Not on my watch.” You will rebuke the sickness and appropriate by faith the healing that Jesus paid for.

And after you have seen one or two get healed—after you have killed your lion and your bear—you will have the confidence to start gunning for the giants that terrorize your land.

Then you will be a king indeed.

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Extracted and adapted from The Gospel in Ten Words.

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Did you know that you are called to be a king? It’s true. God told Abraham he would be “the father of many nations and kings will come from you.” Abraham’s offspring—the children of the faith—are meant to be kings (see Gen. 17:6, 16).

This means you. Jesus the King has made you both a king and a priest (Rev. 1:6). Did you even know?

Kingship has to do with authority and power. Adam was given authority over the earth and lost it to Satan. We know this because of what the devil said when he showed Jesus all the kingdoms of the world: “All their authority and splendor has been given to me” (see Luke 4:6).

But last Adam took back what the devil stole and before he ascended into heaven, he revealed his kingly glory: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me” (Matt. 28:18).

The war has been fought and won and the devil is defeated. As believers our role is to represent the Victor and his victory in those areas that remain under the influence of darkness.

We are to fill the earth with the knowledge of his glory by ruling over sickness, demonic spirits, and all the works of the enemy. (Sidebar: For those new to this kingship business, here’s a reading list: Matt. 10:1, 8, 12:28, Mark 16:17–20, Luke 10:19, and John 14:12.)

In our union with Christ Jesus he raised us up with him to rule with him in the heavenly world. (Ephesians 2:6, GNB)

This leads to some sobering questions: Why do bad things happen to good people? Why do people get sick and die prematurely? Why do the innocent suffer? Theologians blame sin, Job followers blame God, but look at what the Bible says:

The highest heavens belong to the Lord, but the earth he has given to man. (Psalms 115:16)

This planet is our responsibility. It was given to us and we were told to rule it.

If bad things happen it is easy to blame God and the government or the Russians cyberwhizzes behind Snapchat. But did you ever pause to consider the possibility that bad things happen because we—the kings called to rule in God’s name—allow them to happen. It was one of us who gave the planet to Satan, and it was Jesus acting as one of us who took it back.

We have far more say in what goes on than we give ourselves credit for.

The problem is not that we lack authority. The problem is we don’t walk in the authority God has given us. We don’t know how.

Perhaps we think we are too young or too old or we don’t have enough training or we need more anointing. Perhaps we are sitting idly by waiting for Jesus to return. Whatever our excuse, the outcome is the same: When we abdicate our kingly role people suffer.

Consider Adam. A treacherous enemy slithered into his realm, Adam did nothing, and humanity ended up on death row. Bad things happen because kings do nothing to stop them.

When industries collapse and companies fold, it’s easy to point the finger at corporate fat cats and sleeping watchdogs. But spoilers and slackers have always been with us and playing the blame game solves nothing.

A better question to ask is, where were we? Where were the kings who rule with wisdom and justice?

Unbelief thrives in a culture of victimhood but faith brings the victory that overcomes the world (see 1 John 5:4).

Passive unbelief stays on the sidelines and doesn’t lift a finger to help, but faith raises its hand—it volunteers, it speaks out, it defends and seeks to administer justice in the name of a righteous king.

Over the coming weeks we are going to learn how to walk and talk like the kings we are. You’re going to love it. Invite a friend.

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